Our group has developed a new technique to probe elementary quantum excitations of atomic vibrations inside a crystal under ambient conditions. The technique uses ultra-short laser pulses and detectors sensitive to single photons.
This work was performed in collaboration with the Laboratory of Theoretical Physics of Nanosystems at EPFL and Nicolas Sangouard at the Quantum Optics Theory Group in Basel.
Our results are published in Physical Review Letters and accessible on the arXiv.